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zedat.fu-berlin.de>Nirmala Srirekam PuruShotam Negotiating Language, Constructing Race Disciplining Difference in Singapore 1997. 23 x 15,5 cm. X, 294 pages Cloth DM 178,-/approx. US$ 111.00 ISBN 3-11-015679-2 Contributions to the Sociology of Language 79 Mouton de Gruyter * Berlin * New York This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the politics that took its inspiration from, and control over, `ordinary' peoples ethnicities and languages. This rare, detailed social history shows how the Orientalist construction of race and language in colonial Singapore was transformed into a powerful practice of `nation' that remains today. Thus, since the advent of nationalism, Singapore has been presented as a multiracial social space. This multiracial character has been carefully re-constructed as constituted by four races, with mainly four distinct languages. With this policy, the ruling elite has instituted a particular discourse about language, which almost always implicates race. Additionally, the discourse has also translated itself into actual institutional practices, which `ordinary' men, women and children cannot avoid, and must participate in. Interspersed by the actual voices and experiences of common people, caught within neo-Orientalists statist constructions, the study provides another angle to the contemporary postmodern assurance that difference is necessarily liberating. Difference, instead, is shown to have disciplinary consequences. Yet the logic of dominant discourses can, at the same time, be re-interpreted -- cleverly or innocently - for enabling legitimate pressure upon the authorities. As Everyday Life readings of state discourses importantly unfold within the institution of the family, the often invisible role women actually play with reference to language, race, and nation, is importantly brought to the fore. Contents `Nation' and `Race': realms of problematic possibilities for language * Race-ing language: the institutionalisation of `Chinese', `Malay', and `Indian' in Singapore * Talk about language: from political project to daily life positionings * Language on the life trajectory: Everyday Life contexts, relevances and practices * The mother tongue: male texts and female readings * Second language: official bilingualism brought home * Disciplining difference * Notes * References * Index _______________________________________________________________________ Mouton de Gruyter Walter de Gruyter, Inc. Postfach 30 34 21 200 Saw Mill River Road D-10728 Berlin Hawthorne, NY 10532 Germany USA Fax: +49 (0)30 26005-351 Fax: +1 914 747-1326 email: moutonMail to author|Respond to list|Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue
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